A missed deadline for turning in paperwork has led to the old Detroit school district losing out on $6.5 million that could have been used to help pay down its legacy debt.

Detroit Public Schools Community District Superintendent Nikolai Vitti told school board members via e-mail earlier this week that any current employees who were involved in the matter would be disciplined. On Thursday, Michael Bridges, a deputy executive director in the finance department, resigned.

The State of Michigan reimburses districts for lost debt millage funds under Public Act 86, Vitti said Monday in an e-mail he sent to board members. In order to qualify, districts must submit the necessary paperwork by Aug. 15.

"I learned today that the required documentation for Detroit Public Schools was not received by the state," he wrote Monday. "Apparently, the forms were provided to the former CFO in the spring but not completed."

Vitti stressed in a follow-up message that what happened won't have a direct impact on the day-to-day operations of Detroit Public Schools Community District — only on the repayment of Detroit Public Schools' long-term legacy debt. There was nearly $2 billion in debt as of June 30, Vitti said.

Last year, Gov. Rick Snyder signed a controversial $617-million state-aid package that divided Detroit Public Schools into old and new districts. The old DPS still exists, but only as an entity that collects taxes for the purpose of paying down debt.

The city's children are educated in the new district, DPSCD.

Vitti called what happened unacceptable.

"Disciplinary action will be taken and we will continue to proactively work with the Treasury (department) to obtain the reimbursement," he wrote.

School board member LaMar Lemmons said he wants to explore what safeguards can be put in place to prevent something like this from happening again.

In an e-mail, Vitti said the ultimate responsibility to submit the paperwork fell on former CFO Marios Demetriou and two executive directors in finance, Bridges and Delores Brown.

Vitti said Demetriou asked Bridges and Brown to have outside advisers complete the paperwork. Bridges said he submitted the completed forms to Demetriou, Vitti wrote, but there is no record of him having done so. Vitti also wrote that Demetriou doesn't recall the final stages of the process.

Vitti said in the transition from Demetriou to current CFO Jeremy Vidito and Tony Saunders, who leads a consulting firm, "there was no mention or records regarding the need to submit the reimbursement paperwork."

Vitti said Bridges submitted his resignation Thursday.

"He resigned as we were reviewing the sequence of events ‎that led to the paperwork not being submitted on time," Vitti told the Free Press.